


Phil Who?

by CanDanAndPhilNot (enbycalhoun)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Amnesia, Banter, Fluff, M/M, YouTuber Dan Howell, YouTuber Phil Lester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:06:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23322916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enbycalhoun/pseuds/CanDanAndPhilNot
Summary: Phil gets amnesia and his husband, Dan, tries to help him remember.  Aka my knowledge of amnesia consists of the movie Overboard, and that one episode of Full House so don't come for me.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29
Collections: phandomficfests: escape from reality





	Phil Who?

**Author's Note:**

> For Phandom Fic Fests Escape from Reality: Trope Celebration. Thanks to patchworklove for being my beta and an all around amazing human

The first thing Phil felt when he woke up, was fear. There were two people standing in front of him that he didn’t recognize. One was obviously a nurse, a lady in scrubs and a stethoscope around her neck, and a man with curly brown hair, a look of concern on his face. 

“How're you feeling, dear?” The man said, reaching out to grab Phil's hand. 

Instinct told Phil to pull his hand back, so that’s what he did, earning a shocked reaction from the man. 

“Hello, Phil, do you know where you are?” The nurse said in an almost condescending voice. 

“Me?” Phil pointed to himself. Was that his name? Phil? That wasn’t a cool name at all. 

“Hm, we were worried about this…" The nurse said, tapping her foot on the linoleum floor. 

“Worried, about what? What’s going on?” The man looked between Phil and the nurse. 

“It seems you’ve got a bit of amnesia sweetie,” the nurse said, turning to a computer on a cart. 

“What’s going on and who’s this guy?” Phil pointed to the man sitting beside the bed and tried to take a deep breath. A pain shot through his chest and his head throbbed. 

“Phil, dear, I’m your husband, Dan? You don’t recognize me?” The man reached back for Phil's hand and this time Phil didn’t pull back. “We've been married for five years. We’ve been together since 2009.” 

“I'm gay?” He meant to ask what year it was then, but the shock of hearing he had a husband took over. Then he took a mental check. What did he remember? “Okay, yeah, I’m definitely gay. And…and that’s it.” 

Shortly after Phil's realization that he definitely didn’t remember anything, Dan and the nurse left. There was nothing in his head. No childhood, no family, friends, and definitely not a husband. What did he do for work? Was he poor? What foods did he even like? Marshmallow. Chocolate. Okay, Phil loved sweets. That was a fact. Where did he live? So many questions came to mind but no answers. 

Between Phil flipping through channels on the small TV on the wall, Dan and the nurse came back in, Dan holding a pile of fabric. 

“Okay, Phil. You are free to go with your husband here, you’ll have a check up a week from today, but don’t hesitate to call if you have questions okay?”

“So…you're just letting this guy take me? What if he’s some kind of murderer or something?” Dan didn’t look like a murderer; in fact, Phil was surprised someone as handsome as Dan decided to marry him. Actually, Phil didn’t even know what he, himself, looked like. 

“Okay, I was going to wait to show you, but if you need proof that I’m no stranger.” Dan pulled a phone from his pocket, clicked a few things and handed Phil the phone. 

“Hello, Dan and Phil games balls.” 

“Balls? Really, Phil?” 

On the screen was a YouTube video of Dan and apparently, himself. Phil scrolled down to see the channel name, DanAndPhilGames and the subscriber count, three million subscribers.

“So, what? We…play games for a living?” Phil asked looking up at Dan. 

“Kind of? I’ll explain more later, I promise. But yes, we make videos online. And they pay us. Here.” 

Phil handed Dan's phone back and took the pile of clothes.

“Get dressed and we can get home. Maybe you’ll remember the flat.” 

"Again, call us if you need anything." The nurse smiled and walked out the door, closing it behind her. 

Despite the mild pain, Phil stood, holding his gown shut and looked at the clothes. 

"This is mine?" He held up a black shirt that had the word "vibes" across the front in bright colors and two different socks, one blue and the other orange and black striped. "Seems a bit...odd." 

"You  _ are  _ a bit odd, Phil. But that's why I love you." Dan shuffled his feet and looked down at them. 

"Okay...well, I'm going to get dressed now." 

A few moments of silence passed before Dan said, "Oh! Do you want me to…" He pointed at the door. 

"Please." 

Dan left and Phil put on the shirt and black jeans. Why were his trousers so tight? He took these moments alone to peak into a mirror above the sink across the room. Well, it could have been worse. 

"Ready," Phil said, opening the door and running a hand through his hair. 

They walked down the hall and stepped into the elevator, taking them to the first floor. Phil took a deep breath as they went through the lobby, the lady behind the desk shooting them a sweet smile.

"So, I'm guessing you'll drive home?" Phil questioned as they stepped outside through the automatic doors. 

"No, we'll just call an Uber. We don't need a car since we live in the city." Dan was tapping his thumbs wildly against his phone. 

"And uh, what city would that be?" Phil looked around the busy street and stepped closer to Dan, grabbing the man's sleeve so he wouldn't get lost. 

"London, Phil. We've lived here for about seven years now, I think?" 

"Where did we live before?" Curiosity filled him. He wanted to know it all. He needed to know his own life. 

"Manchester. Well, you lived there first and then I went to uni there before we moved in together. Don't want to get lost, yeah?" Dan chuckled and looked down at where Phil had a handful of his sleeve in his grip. 

"I think I would actually die if we got separated, so bugger off." Heat rose to Phil's cheeks. It wasn't  _ his  _ fault he couldn't remember anything. 

"I'm not judging you, I just think that just because you can't remember anything, doesn't mean you're not still you." 

"What're you on about?"    
  


"When we’re in big crowds you tend to grab my sleeve just like you're doing now." 

Phil couldn't think of a response to that. It bugged him that this guy knew him better than he knew himself. It made him feel vulnerable, like this guy could use this knowledge against him in some way. 

A car pulled up to the curb and Dan pulled them both inside. London felt familiar as Phil watched buildings and people flash by. There wasn't a shop he could identify, but it felt like he'd been here before. 

When the car came to a stop, they both got out and thanked their driver. The building in front of them didn't ring any bells. Regardless, Phil followed Dan to a set of steps and they went through a modern black door. The place looked newer than most buildings they'd past in the car. Inside, Dan led them to another, smaller black door down a long hallway with a number five on the front. 

"Welcome home," Dan whispered as he opened the door. 

When Phil walked inside, he was hoping that all of a sudden  _ something  _ would come back to him. But he stood in the hall, watching Dan walk into what was apparently their flat. 

"Phil? Come on, it's just the flat." Dan turned around as he kicked off his shoes. 

Timidly, Phil walked down the hall that led to a lounge. Everything seemed normal enough. House plants, books, video games, even a fish tank.

"Norman, Dad's home!" Dan walked over to the fish tank and bent down to look at the blue beta fish. 

"Norman?" 

"Our fish-child." Dan smiled up at Phil and a pang of sadness hit his gut. 

"I'm sorry I don't remember any of this. I feel like I should be more excited but...I'm just kind of confused." 

Dan's smile fell a bit which made Phil feel even worse. "S'okay. Do you want to maybe walk around, see if anything jogs a memory or something?" 

Phil nodded and started for some of the other doors down the hall. 

Behind the first door was a room with two desks and computers. One side was all monochrome, everything black or white. The other side was colorful with little knick-knacks and a cool lava lamp that Phil was immediately attracted to. 

"Please tell me my side is the one with the cool lamp."    
  


"Yes," Dan laughed. "I prefer an aesthetically pleasing, simple vibe." 

They moved down to the next room which was just a bed and two side tables with a few more little trinkets here or there. 

"Anything in here seem familiar?" Dan was standing a bit too close.for Phil's comfort. Maybe that's how they always were. No more than a centimeter apart even if they had the space to not be.

"Uh…" Phil walked in and flopped down on the bed. "Not really. But our bed is comfy." Then it hit Phil. Should he be sleeping next to a stranger? Even if in reality, they had been doing that for a decade. 

With a quick motion of his arm, beckoning for Phil to follow, he disappeared from the open door. 

Phil met him at the last room at the end of the hall. 

Inside was...well not what Phil was expecting. It looked like a hoarder lived there. The walls were lined with shelves of different stuffed animals and awards. Around the shelves were countless hand written letters turned into a wallpaper around the room. Then the filing cabinets lining the walls all covered in magnets and more letters. It was almost too much to take in. 

Almost in a state of shock, Phil walked over to some of the plaques and trophies. 

"Creator of the year...film of the year...book of the year...we've won awards? And these letters, are they-" Phil read a few and looked up at Dan whose eyes looked glossy. "People really like us, don't they? Look, this one person says, 'you two saved my life.' That's pretty heavy." 

"We've been through a lot." Dan shook his head and motioned for Phil to follow again. They went to the lounge and Phil fell down on a part of the sofa. "Okay, now I know you don't remember shit because you're in my sofa crease." 

"Oh! Um, sorry." Phil shot up and moved down a cushion. 

"So, usually Tuesday night is your night to cook, but I was thinking of some takeaway if that's okay with you," Dan said falling back into his spot next to Phil who was starting to kick off his shoes.

"Yeah, okay. Um, what do I like?" 

"Just trust me, I know you well enough to order what you want from Dominos." 

"So," Phil started as he leaned further back into the couch. "Could we watch more of our videos? So I can get a better idea of who we are? You have ten years of knowledge and I have no idea what your favorite color is." 

"Color," Dan laughed. "Still have that sense of humor, Phil." 

Dan brought YouTube up on the TV and looked at Phil. "Where do you wanna start? Your old videos? Mine?" 

Phil thought for a second. "Did we always make videos together?" 

"No, you started before I did. You're the reason I started making my own, actually." 

"So did we like, live by each other or something? How did we meet?" 

Sheepishly, Dan said, "Uh, on the internet. I um, basically stalked you until you noticed me and then we started talking...and, yeah." 

"You stalked me?" A bad feeling bubbled up in Phil's stomach. 

"Okay." Dan held his hands up and laughed nervously. "That sounds a lot worse than it actually was. I was a fan when you only had a few thousand followers. I didn't like, find where you lived or anything." 

"Okay…" Phil scooted over a few inches away from Dan. "Put on our first video." 

"Oof. You're lucky, I hate watching our old videos; they're so cringey." 

The TV across the room displayed a video. “Phil is not on fire?”

“Yeah, so your username on YouTube is AmazingPhil and mine used to be Danisnotonfire. I changed mine a few years back to just my name.” 

“Alright then, play it.” 

Dan pressed play and immediately Phil started smacking Dan. “Look how young we look! Oh my god. And that hair! Look at all that hair!” 

All Dan did was laugh and let the video play.

_ D: Why do you always make cat whiskers on your face? _

_ D&P: Meow! _

_ P: *Screech* _

_ D: That's a - every, every animal _

_ makes that noise with you. _

_ D&P: Zebra, Zebra, Zebra. _

“Why’s it going so fast?”

“That was the popular thing back then. The ‘lol-random’ days.” 

_ D: If you had to lose your leg or _

_ your nose, what would you lose? _

_ P: I'd lose my leg. Imagine my face without a nose. _

_ D: Voldemort has no nose _

_ P: I’d feel like Voldemort. _

_ D: Voldemort's pretty fit, to be honest. _

_ P: I already look like Voldemort.  _

_ D: I would bang Voldemort.  _

“Dan!” 

“What!”

“You cheeky shit, flirting with me like that!” Phil could feel his face burning. 

“You just wait,” Dan laughed as his own face turned a shade of pink. 

The video continued and Phil found himself laughing along. They  _ were _ pretty funny; he could see the reason people watched them. Phil could feel Dan’s eyes on him when their past selves walked around a house Phil didn’t recognize. 

Warmth filled Phil’s chest as he watched his younger self lean into Dan, both genuinely laughing. 

_ Wall-E! _

_ Waaall-Eee! _

  
  


“That was so sexual!” Phil covers his mouth and looks at Dan who’s silently laughing. 

“Trust me, it didn’t go unnoticed.”

“Are we always like this on camera?”

“Well...not really. We had a rough spot for a few years but, well, things got better.” 

_ D: This was the most fun I’ve ever had - Oh!  _

“We do make a good couple, don’t we?” Phil could feel himself smiling despite not having any recollection of these moments, he felt good knowing at least Dan did, and Phil would have a decade worth of videos to help piece it all together. 


End file.
